playground lessons for rosh hashanah

There used to be this really lame park across the street from our block. All it had was a tiny tube to crawl through, a miniature slide, and some swings. However, we went there pretty often because it was so lame, nobody came, plus it was really close by. As summer started coming to a close, we saw that it was being torn down. Soon I was informed that they were building a brand new park in its place. Every day, we would check on its progress.

After some time, the orange tape around the new playground was taken down, even though it was definitely not finished. I believe we were the first to play on it. Still, we would stop to see what new thing they had added. When we thought it was finally finished, we noticed they had built a grey “spinny thingy”. The way it worked was you would stand on the platform and someone would push you, and you would be frantically holding on for dear life and trying to stay on, when really , when you looked at it, it wasn’t going so fast. It sure seemed like it was speeding, and I actually saw someone fly off! You tried so hard to hang on, but if you managed to lean back, even when it seemed like you would fly off any second,  suddenly it was so easy to hold on, because  suddenly  you weren’t going fast at all!

On Rosh Hashanah, I was passing by the park, and I started thinking. From the month of Elul to the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah, we try so hard to be good and do teshuvah, and daven with kavanah and it’s so hard and you’re struggling to do it all and it seems like you just can’t take anymore and you’re going to collapse, but if you let go of your fears, stress and anxiety and just “lean back” a little, get out of your normal, everyday habits and try to make one small little change, suddenly everything is so much easier, just like at the playground.

Now, I just want to make one thing very clear. Just because this example popped into my head, doesn’t mean that automatically mean that I can do it yet. I still have to work on myself and change, but I’m getting there. But really, if you’re looking for inspiration, just take a look around you. There is so much our world has to offer, you just have to open up your eyes…

Oh wait a second, this time I have some song inspiration… I’ll let you know how that goes, that tune has been bothering me since forever!

SHANAH TOVAH!